Saturday, December 1, 2012

PARALLEL LIFE

Every youth of our times should have passed through a golden period
in their life in parallel Colleges. Cambridge, Nalanda, Milton etc were the
cute names given ( No international
registrations were required!) In fact
they were the training ground of the youth of the times. For teaching in a
parallel College, no teaching experience is necessary. No one will verify your
credentials. No recommendations are necessary. The only asset required is the
ability to stand before a huge assembly of glittering eyes. Yet the experiment
proved to be very perfect. Many raw graduates taught excellently well as if
they were teachers for years. The only problem
was that , as no certificate was required, a BA failed rogue could teach for
MA. The acid test for existence was your ability to teach. Hence there was
tight competition and surveillance of the Principal behind the curtain. If some
of the students complain about the classes, the next day, before proceeding to
the class with a chalk, the Principal will call the teacher back and dismiss
him on the spot. There was no Union. He will have no other option but to go to his
last less attractive job. If On the other hand, one excels in his classes
offers will come for him from other big institutions with a high pay packet. The
Principal will always skeptically watch a good teacher with the ability to
canvas the students for he will try to become a pied piper and will desert the
Institution with the students.

I was initiated to this ritual by the late
Jeevarajan who was at that time teaching in Nalanda, Pazhayangadi. I was a
novice and the students were very experienced to handle a novice. They tried to
intimidate me with no avail. I had to teach Physics and Chemistry for High
School students. This I did with much ease. There were also three batches of
failed students appearing for SSLC supplementary exams. There also I survived
with some difficulty. Soon I was asked to teach PDC students which I did
exceptionally well. I thought I was being accepted by the teachers as well as
students.

The greatest
difficulty was getting salary. The monthly salary fixed was Rs. 200/- which was
not bad for a beginner like me. I had to travel to Pazhayangadi from Payyanur
and also to meet other expenses for food and cigarettes ( I was a chain smoker
at that time). I soon understood that getting salary from the Principal is a
bit difficult and what one can do is to sit at the Office in the morning and
collect fee directly from students so that the same can be adjusted towards
salary. The Principal of the College was Thampi master, a famous English
teacher who will occasionally invite us to lunch with him. The expenses for
that will be met by him.

We used to
stroll through Madyi hill in the evenings. The memory of those evenings will
remain in my memory for ever. Madayi is a historical place and you could smell
the antiquity of the place. The place witnessed several wars. The new temple at
vadukunnu was still in ruins. At the top point the scenery is just fantastic.
Arabian Sea could be seen glittering in the evening sunlight in the western
side and pazhayangadi river on the eastern side. As I used to commute the
evening passenger train, we used to sit at the top from where one could see the
approaching train. There is a short cut to the station from the top.

There was
teacher of Chemistry who is a great fan of cine actor Jayan who used to take
classes in jayan’s fashion. “What did you say ? Coolies- We may be ………………………….”

When a vacancy arose in National
College, Taliparamaba which was a well paid institution at that time I moved there.
I was very impressed by the College under Purushothaman Master. A very attractive salary of Rs. 5/- per class
was offered. I used to reach there at 9am and worked until 9 pm (there was a
night class for the over aged ) I used
to return only by the last bus. I remember those nights on which I walked from
the town to gramam through the lonely road completely exhausted.

It was then that we ten friends of
Gramam decided to start our own parallel College. Collecting Rs. 100/- from
each (it was very tough at that time) we raised a huge capital of Rs. 1000 and started Cherussery
College with the help of Scanda Dasa Samajam at Mundoommal School . We worked
free initially for meeting the administrative expenditure. Gifted teachers like
U K Surendran, Sasi KU, KU Mohanan, Rajeevan M, Rajan CM Balan ., CH Mohanan
and CH surendran Nambiar took classes. Soon the College flourished. That was
indeed a golden period of my life. My intellectual horizon was widened because
of the company of these friends. K U Mohanan and I used to walk though the
moonlight night to Surendran Masters house at kandangali and we used to sit
together and discuss all matters under son. There was a huge Library in the
house filled with classics. Surendran Master and Mohanan gave me the first lessons in
aesthetics. It was under their insistence that I read all Shakespearean
tragedies,Kazantzakis, Tolstoy, Garcia Marquez and
several others during a vacation for the simple pleasure of reading. We
used to play tennis in the evenings. We also convened several symposiums at the
College

C H Mohanan was very good at that. We
also formed a team and contested in many competitions. We used to sit above the
wall of the Well of the College in the evenings till late night.

Parallel college has its own merits. K
U Mohanan and M Rajeevan selected their life partners from their students. Today
all of my friends including them at the College have scaled great heights. The experience
gained at the College helped them shape their future life